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I wish our high streets could see a revival...instead we have cheap shops and empty units...even the new purpose built smaller retail units are standing empty two years after build completion which is such a shame. Prices are killing off small start ups round here. Rents and rates are totally ridiculous and red routes and general lack of parking do not help one bit.

Online shopping is fine for certain things but you really can't beat the hands on shopping experience.

It's true the empty shops seem to sit vacant not for months, but years now.

Some of them in Enfield are now being converted into houses. Cycle lanes in Enfield are likely to put the nail in the coffin of the small businesses there, between that and the red routes traffic is likely to come to a stand still and, I am afraid to say, people are unlikely to go there to shop anymore. Once the parking rates went up in the multistorey car park and the council didn't give its workers free parking, they began to park in the side streets further up, which meant that no one could park up and drop into the local shops, it was a problem for lots of the shops there. It was yet another reason we didn't renew the lease on the shop, just too many odds stacked against it at that location.

But, is it really a community if it doesn't have a set of local shops? Could it be that groups like the Brownies and Knit/Stitch groups can fill that gap alone???

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I was reading an article this evening which stated " TOYS 'R' US is closing 26 UK stores, with 800 jobs at risk, the high street giant has revealed." But I feel that it was never a 'high street store' it was always an out-of-centre warehouse mass selling centre which put most of the high street toy stores out of business. I do wonder if most people, having gone to their high street and been unable to choose a toy, chose to go online instead of driving to an out-of-centre store. There would be a little poetic justice in that. Although I still hope they can sort something out so that those currently employed in those stores keep their job.